And it's a logical alternative. Another idea would be a bit more regulation to control the extremes of the business cycle. The worse the contraction is, the lower government income and the higher government expenditure.
uhhh... yeah... control. I'd far rather that people were taught about the business cycle and then left to make their own decisions. The War on Drugs is an effort at control, it's increased the amount of drugs while lowering the price, the exact opposite of what the voters and politicians wanted. Incidentally, people think Kramer is nuts, right? One of his books has a chapter on the business cycle and tells specifically how to move investments from sector to sector as the cycle progresses. I recommend it to anybody young enough to be doing long term investing...
They are, which is why some social safety net (we don't all agree on its size, of course) is favored by all.